HathiGaon

Acrylic on cradled panel

9″ x 12″

Hathigaon, or elephant village, is a small community outside Jaipur, in Rajasthan, India designed for 100 elephants an their caretakers, mahouts. Houses for families and adjoining shelters for elephants are clustered around various open spaces from courtyards and gardens to sandy clearings and dense canopies of shade trees. In villages, much of domestic life takes place outdoors. Design features like generous windows between the elephant shelters and inner courtyards, social gathering spaces under the shade trees, and open pavilions along the main road create an intimate overlap between human and elephant spaces.

For the designers and RMA Architects, environmental remediation was paramount in guiding the organization of the site. Formerly a san quarry, the design team prioritized retaining water, an invaluable resource in the desert, by capturing run-off in ponds. An extensive plantation program reintroduced native trees, providing much-needed temperature regulation and a familiar means of organizing space and activities. In addition to environmental resource management, the primary pond serves a crucial social role for the community: it is where the elephants and their mahouts bond with one another through the act of bathing.